Of all the synthetic polymers considered as materials with useful gas permeation properties, such as resistance to passage of oxygen, carbon dioxide, water, and the like, poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVOH), a polymer made up of units of the structure ##STR1## and generally prepared by the total hydrolysis of homopolymers of vinyl acetate or related vinyl esters, the starting polymer made up of units of the structure ##STR2## where R is alkyl, that is, from one to eight carbon atoms, preferably methyl, ranks as the most impervious to the passage of small molecules. PVOH exhibits this property because of the high cohesive energy density and polarity of the hydroxyl groups. The presence of the network of hydroxyl groups has the concomitant effect of rendering the polymer (PVOH) impermeable to gases, but sensitive to moisture. The strong intermolecular interaction resulting from the high polarity of the --OH functional group gives rise to a melting temperature in the vicinity of the degradation temperature of PVOH. Consequently, melting is accompanied by degradation. The degradation is so severe that PVOH by itself cannot either be melt extruded or injection molded.
The above limitations were surmounted by the preparation and subsequent hydrolysis of vinyl acetate copolymers with monomers other than vinyl esters, especially copolymers with olefins, such as ethylene, propylene, butene-1, and the like. Hydrolysis of ethylene/vinyl acetate copolymers provides a polymer which exhibits those desirable characteristics of PVOH, but is superior to PVOH in performance in hydrophilic environments, such as wet strength, and in melt processability. However, these copolymers exhibit a significant increase in the permeability of the polymer to small molecules. Polymers having a low mol percentage of ethylene, such as from about 5 to about 25 mol percent, are similar to poly(vinyl alcohol) in that they cannot be melt-processed into film without the aid of plasticizers.
In order to render PVOH melt processable, steps have been taken to break up the crystallinity by the addition of external plasticizers. Amongst the best known plasticizers of PVOH are the polyols; these include polyethylene glycol, glycerol, and neopentyl glycol. The use of small molecules or oligomers as plasticizers for PVOH has its inherent limitations and disadvantages. The current state of the art technology employs 10-25 parts of plasticizer to 100 parts of PVOH. A higher concentration of plasticizer leads to phase separation and embrittlement of the plasticized matrix. Low levels of plasticizer, on the other hand, lead to the formation of highly viscous inextrudable melts during melt processing and extrusion. Another shortcoming of plasticized PVOH is the occurrence of plasticizer migration, which arises during thermal processing such as extrusion and heat sealing of PVOH film. During extrusion, the low molecular weight plasticizer may deposit at the die lips. During heat sealing, the low molecular weight plasticizer will migrate and evaporate from the heated region of the film. In the absence of the plasticizer, the PVOH rapidly recrystallizes and embrittles the heat sealed portion of the film. In a packaging application, this embrittlement can compromise the integrity of the package via cracks and pinholes. Another shortcoming of externally plasticized PVOH, which manifests itself when the plasticized PVOH resin comes into contact with alkaline or acidic solvents, is the hydrolysis and subsequent embrittlement of the partially hydrolyzed PVOH resin that is frequently used in preparing plasticized PVOH material.
Preparation of internally plasticized PVOH resin by polymerization of vinyl acetate in the presence of a plasticizer or second polymer has been studied to overcome the above difficulties, but such polymerizations, especially in emulsion, offer limitations caused by the difficulty of dispersing the plasticizer or pre-formed second polymer where it is intimately admixed with the polymerizing vinyl ester, which has a significant degree of water solubility.
In spite of the fact that all of the above mentioned techniques have the effect of improving the melt processing characteristics of PVOH, they also have the concomitant effects of significantly increasing the permeability of the resin to small molecules and reducing the stiffness and heat distortion temperature of the resin. Thus there exists a need for a means to allow melt-processing of polymers of high vinyl alcohol content, such as fully hydrolyzed or highly hydrolyzed polymers of vinyl esters, into useful objects maintaining most of the barrier properties of the polymer of high vinyl alcohol content. There further exists a need for additive polymers which may be blended with polymers of high vinyl alcohol content to enhance their ability to form films and coatings with improved properties of the film or coating without much loss in barrier properties.
In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/781,715, which has the same inventors and the same assignment as the present application, are disclosed additive polymers useful in allowing melt processing of the poly(vinyl alcohol) materials discussed above without significant alteration of their physical and barrier properties. These additive polymers are copolymers of lower alkyl methacrylates with a variety of nitrogenous monomers, especially those bearing amide groups, and most especially N-vinylpyrrolidone. Further is disclosed as more useful additives terpolymers containing lower alkyl methacrylates, the same nitrogenous co-monomers, and copolymerized unsaturated carboxylic acids, such as methacrylic acid. It is further disclosed that these latter terpolymers form segmented copolymers on blending with the poly(vinyl alcohol) matrix polymers.
The polymers of Application 781,715 do require nitrogenous monomers, which adds to the cost, which are somewhat difficult to incorporate effectively by emulsion copolymerization, and which may contribute color to the resulting blends. For these and other reasons, it would be desirable to remove the nitrogenous monomers if similar results in blends with poly(vinyl alcohol) can be retained.
In U.S. Pat. U.S. No. 5,010,134, Chiang et al. disclose graft copolymers of poly(vinyl alcohol) with copolymers of 30-90 mol % methyl methacrylate and 10-70 mol % maleic anhydride, which graft copolymers are insolubilized upon heating to the processing temperatures of the present invention, so that the blends are not useful as thermoplastics, and are not melt-processable.